City Paint 3 – 2012…The End??

This one is almost too much…from the side of the Korner Market…350 S. State Street, downtown Salt Lake City…. The first two photos are the left and right sides of the huge mural, and the following six shots are close-ups of the more significant parts…certainly thought-provoking, in addition to being an amazing work of art.

I was so taken with my “discovery” of the mural that I had forgotten to get the name of the business and exact address…so I had to make a return trip to collect that info. When I went back, I found that the bottom half of the mural had been blackened-out…covered…in only four or five days from when I shot these photos. I went into the store to see who I might find who could explain what was going on with the mural. I found a young man behind the counter, Oz, who told me that the whole mural is covered and replaced every year…has been for the last four or five years now. Each time they have it replaced, the graffiti artist Kier re-paints the whole thing…with spray cans of paint. The murals usually contain a message…ideas submitted by store customers, neighboring businesses, the Korner Market owners, and Kier himself. The subject matter for the present mural is 2012…with the intertwined concerns of the Maya prediction about the ending of life as we know it, politics, UFOs, and society in general. You’ll notice the three-headed image of Greenspan, Obama, and Bush…alien experimentation…and frightened masses.

Oz told me that I should return to the mural in another two or three weeks…said Kier usually takes a couple of weeks to complete everything. He also said that he and Kier were just going over drawings for the next mural…and that it is going to be even bigger and better than this one…grander in scale.

I thought it was awesome, too, Andy. You’re welcome for the back-story and artist’s info. I will definitely be visiting again over the next couple weeks…. I hope to capture the new work in progress. Thank you. 🙂

Wow that is fantastic. It is great when people provide opportunities for the graffiti artists. I can’t wait for you to go back and photograph it again. It’s good that you could remember where it was when you had to return, or we may never have known that it gets redone all the time. Great post.

I agree, it is wonderful when businesses provide the street artists the chance to share their talents in such an approved and public forum. And yes, I’m glad it was so close and that I could find it easily and learn about its history and future. Stay tuned…! 🙂

Hello Scott, to use bit of UK idiom, I’m gobsmacked! The man Kier has talent in spades, Utah’s answer to Banksy.

I guess the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Salt Lake City is the religious reputation it has, I would never have thought of graffiti in the form of apocalytic modern art. This is a really great post, thanks for sharing, and as LensScaper said, it really deserves the publicity.

Hello Finn…. Wow…gobsmacked?! That is the second time I’ve seen that term in the last year or so…how interesting…and complete! I have heard/read about your Banksy…so I imagine that it’s a bit of a compliment to say that Kier is a similar cut. I do rather enjoy his work.

I would agree with you about the religious reputation of Salt Lake City…and I would suggest that the reputation is probably still pretty accurate. From what I have heard and learned in my year and a half of living here, the Salt Lake area is really rather progressive…supposedly the Mormon adherents only make up about 45 to 55% of the population…the rest of us being Gentiles of other faiths, unrepentant sinners and/or homosexuals, or simply non-believing tree-hugger types!! Amazingly, Salt Lake was voted one of the most “gay friendly” cities in the country a few months ago…a striking contrast to the message of the LDS church that these individuals are still wrong-thinking and need to pray a little harder so they can straighten out, so to speak. 🙂 I’m told that the farther one travels from metropolitan Salt Lake, the denser and stronger the Mormon population becomes.

So yes, while it appears odd to find such a topic for the modern-art/graffiti that has been commissioned to appear on SLC’s downtown city walls, I think it represents a bit of the progressive mindset of so many of the people who come here to enjoy the out of doors and not get so hung-up on the theocratic politics that still run strongly in many circles here in the valley.

Thank you for your nice words about the post…I hope to have a fresh installment from this location in a couple weeks.

I do agree that it is a shame to paint over the mural, Marcy, given the beautiful artistry…but they’re going to be replacing it with something that is supposed to be more spectacular…and it’s supposed to be completed this next month…which is a little too soon for the voting results to reflect the hoped-for content of your dream mural…. 🙂

Hey 50K…did not know who else contributed to the mural…I spoke with the folks inside the Korner Market and they mentioned Kier…if I had known of you others, I would certainly have given credit. I have seen other signatures, but can’t often read the names…nothing intentional…sorry about that.